Mixed reviews for Kenny Leon’s Tupac Shakur-based musical on Broadway
SHOW INFORMATION
"Holler If Ya Hear Me" has an open-ended run. Retail price: $59-$139. Palace Theatre, 1564 Broadway, New York. 1-800-745-3000, www.hollerifyahearme.com, www.ticketmaster.com.
Kenny Leon's anticipated production of "Holler If Ya Hear Me," a fictional story set to the music of Tupac Shakur, opened June 19 on Broadway.
So far, the show is struggling to find an audience. Playbill reports its second week grosses at slightly under $160,000 and the show playing to about 40 percent of the 1,111-capacity Palace Theatre. The show also has a strikingly affordable average ticket price of $44.96.
Comparatively, recently opened musicals “If/Then” starring Idina Menzel and “Rocky” earned $887,879 and $711,332, respectively, with an average ticket price around double that of “Holler.” “If/Then” filled 88 percent of its seats in a 1,311-capacity theater.
Reviews of the show have been tepid to cautiously positive. Here is a roundup.
- New York Times critic Charles Isherwood: "The beats are sweet, and the words often have an electric charge in 'Holler If Ya Hear Me,' …Unfortunately, much else about this ambitious show… feels heartfelt but heavy-handed, as it punches home its message with a relentlessness that may soon leave you numb to the tragic story it's trying to tell … The talented, mostly young cast gives many of the individual numbers a surging lift. Mr. (Saul) Williams, himself a poet and rapper, best captures the seething intensity that gives so many of Shakur's songs their heat."
- NBC New York theater writer Robert Kahn: "(Kenny) Leon and (Todd) Kreidler have punctuated the musical with a potent cross-section of Tupac's street poetry (plus two arranged versions of his poems), from the uplifting to the despondent and violent … 'Holler,' which never had an opportunity to percolate elsewhere before its Broadway opening, deserves a more intimate space and more time to work out its kinks."
- Time Out New York theater editor David Cote: "Although songwriting purists will shrink and wince at Shakur's freewheeling meter and propensity to rhyme slant, the real crime against craft is Todd Kreidler's weak book. Avoiding specificity, Kreidler has opted for broad-brush urban archetypes … No doubt, the enterprise deserves respect for bringing Shakur's verbal pyrotechnics and political rage before a new audience. But 'Holler' is a shapeless mix of melodrama, music video and half-grasped musical clichés."
- The Hollywood Reporter film and theater critic David Rooney: "John Singleton can relax. Any danger of his long-in-development Tupac Shakur biopic being beaten to the punch by 'Holler If Ya Hear Me' is quickly dispelled by the deflating experience of this well-intentioned but toothless Broadway rap musical … One of the key issues is that the actors, no matter how talented, have nothing but hackneyed outlines to play."
- Associated Press theater writer Mark Kennedy: "The high-energy, deeply felt but ultimately overwrought production … prove(s) both that rap deserves its moment to shine on a Broadway stage and that some 20 Shakur songs can somehow survive the transformation — barely … There are some inspired moments, like when the misogynist 'I Get Around,' with eight men boasting about their prowess, gets matched with 'Keep Ya Head Up,' a song about female empowerment performed by eight women … Credit Afeni Shakur, a producer of the show, for allowing her son's music to sound differently. Or, if you're completely cynical, credit her with finding a new revenue stream for his catalogue. Either way, rap is firmly on Broadway, and that's something to celebrate."
About the Author
Melissa Ruggieri has covered music and entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 2010 and created the Atlanta Music Scene blog. She's kept vampire hours for more than two decades and remembers when MTV was awesome.
